WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 We're on a series that's called Songs for the Journey, and it comes from the 15 Psalms of Ascent, 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:19.839 which is a particular section in the Psalter, Psalms 120 to 134. And last week we saw that these 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:26.359 Psalms are about the fact that three times a year, if you were a believer in Yahweh, God, 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:32.280 the God of Israel, you, no matter where you lived, if you were able, you would travel to Jerusalem 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:39.200 for pilgrimage. And these are three times a year for three festivals, the festival of Passover, 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:47.239 of Pentecost, and of booze. And these were there for you to remember the Exodus, the salvation 00:00:47.239 --> 00:00:53.679 across the Red Sea from Egypt, the law given at Sinai, and the moments of wandering in the wilderness 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:59.280 under the tents, the feast of tent or booze. And when you would go to Jerusalem, you would give 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:05.359 thanks to God, as Psalm 122 says, you would make sacrifices, you would bring your best, the best of 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.599 your harvest, the best of your animals, you would celebrate the deeds of God, you would do all those 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:16.120 things. These are the songs of the pilgrimage, the songs they would sing, the songs that ancient 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:21.519 peoples would sing as they traveled along the way. We don't do it very much anymore, but every 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:26.679 ancient peoples did it, and these are those songs. And we said last week that they are your songs too. 00:01:26.679 --> 00:01:34.920 How so? They're your songs because of Hebrews chapter 3 and 4. Hebrews 3 and 4 says that we, 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:39.359 that Christians, if you're a Christian, that you are a pilgrim, that you're an exile, that you are 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:45.840 also wandering in the wilderness, that you have a destination that's out in front of you, and you 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:53.280 have a goal, a race, as Paul puts it, something to attain, and you are made for the world, but not, 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.240 you are not of the world. You are still walking, you're still walking, you're still on the journey. 00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:08.759 And Psalm 121 taught us that. Psalm 122 tells us that Jerusalem is your city, but how so is the 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:14.599 question, but how so? And that's what we're looking at tonight, three things. Why Jerusalem makes us 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:26.000 glad, the nature of the city of God, and how to seek her peace. So first, why Jerusalem makes us glad. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:32.039 There are two main things to recall. Usually I don't like to review a previous week sermon, but you 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:38.000 have to because it's a unit. And two things to recall from last week. One is this, that one of the 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:43.560 traditions of the Israelite people when they were on the pilgrimage would be this, that you were 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:51.960 typically not to dwell in a built shelter, a house, a city, a town while you were on the pilgrimage. 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:56.000 Why? Because you were there to relive the Exodus journey, you were there to relive the wandering 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:03.039 and the wilderness. It was meant to be hard. And so there was no house, you were without home in the 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:12.159 pilgrimage. Secondly, and I think I'm right about this, Psalm 122 comes after Psalm 121. And 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:21.840 that's important because in Psalm 121 we saw that when the pilgrim, the Psalmist, it says, I lift my 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:27.039 eyes up and I see the hills and I ask, from where does my help come? That when he sees the hills, 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:32.759 he's not saying the hills make me see God's beautiful creation and want to worship God. Actually, 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:38.120 that's true, but that phrase means something else. It actually, the hills in Psalm 121 are a place of 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:44.480 fear. He's afraid of the hills because the hills outside Jerusalem were known as a place of robbers 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:51.039 and bandits and mercenaries and also a place of the high places that the hills where demons were 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:57.200 worshiped, where idols were worshiped. And so they were afraid. And so this is the picture of the 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:04.240 pilgrimage so far. You are homeless in pilgrimage. You're coming to Jerusalem, but you are homeless. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:12.719 And that homelessness is full of dangers, toils, and snares on every side. As you come to see the 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:18.439 hills, you sleep outdoors in the middle of the night. You are exposed to the elements and to 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:25.280 humans that are after you potentially. And in Psalm 121 it said, when you sleep in the middle 00:04:25.280 --> 00:04:31.960 of the night out in the hills in the place of danger, the keeper, he does not sleep. He slumber 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:38.799 if not nor sleepeth as the KJV puts it. He doesn't sleep. He's the key. God is the keeper. He protects 00:04:38.799 --> 00:04:46.120 you on the journey. And now in Psalm 122, where are we? Where have we gotten to? And you saw it 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:55.359 verse two, our feet are standing within the gates of Jerusalem. You see, in other words, he was 00:04:55.359 --> 00:05:00.919 homeless, but now the pilgrimage has ended and the journey or the Psalmist here is standing in the 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:05.280 gate of the city. He's standing. He's made it. He's made it to Jerusalem. But what I want you to 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:12.400 notice is exactly how he describes his destination. What does he say? I was glad when they said to me 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:22.280 in verse one, let us go to the temple. The temple of God. No, it doesn't say temple. It says I was 00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:26.960 glad when they said to me, literally, it says when they said, let us go to the home of Yahweh, 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:35.239 is what it says. In other words, he frames it in the language of coming home. In other words, 00:05:35.239 --> 00:05:43.079 the point of the passage is as simple as this, that the pilgrimage is homelessness and stepping 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:50.519 into the city of Jerusalem is to come home. It's to come home to the home of God, the place where 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:59.159 God dwells and coming home. We all know it. We've all felt it, what it feels like to come home. 00:05:59.159 --> 00:06:07.879 Some 40 of you will, as I will in nine days, will maybe on the same flight, will go back to the 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:15.120 States and eventually you'll come home. As wonderful as the trip to Scotland will be, 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:20.879 of course, when you do step in your door after a long journey, you feel it. It's like, we've 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:28.319 made it back. For me, I taste it the most, not depending on where I am. When I cross the Atlantic 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:34.360 in a plane and the plane touches the ground and I step into the terminal, whether it's Boston, 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:42.079 New York, Edinburgh, London, Atlanta, it doesn't matter. I feel homecoming because I know that I 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:49.359 was not made to be in a metal cylinder 32,000 feet in the air. I wasn't made for that. You weren't 00:06:49.359 --> 00:06:54.079 either. You were made to be on the ground. That's where God's put us. We weren't made to fly. There's 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:59.479 a sense of homecoming as soon as you hit the ground. We've tasted it in all sorts of ways. All of us, 00:06:59.479 --> 00:07:06.959 it's a fact that we feel it. These are shadows. These are shadows. They're shadows of a deep 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:15.799 desire to come home from the hills into the home where God dwells. Every homecoming that we 00:07:15.799 --> 00:07:22.479 experience is a shadow, a foretaste, at its best of the sweetest thing that you were made for, 00:07:22.479 --> 00:07:28.759 and that's to come home, to dwell in the home of God. That's why the psalmist says, verse one, 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:35.919 I was glad. Now, this term glad is an important word. It's an unusual word, actually, in Hebrew, 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:42.000 in the Old Testament. It is no mere modern sense of happiness, the way that the word is commonly 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:48.720 used, be happy. It is that, but it's much more than that. It's more like in English, the old 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:55.120 English term for mirth, which is a term we don't really use anymore, but the term for mirth or 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:02.400 the de facto sense of to be merry. We use it in Mary, but the real sense of what it means to have 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:09.759 mirth or to be merry, what does that, or what does it mean to be glad here? It's put really well in 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:18.279 the third book of the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, when Derek recently made fun of me 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:24.599 a couple times for quoting Lord of the Rings, so that's why. But here it is again. It's spoken of 00:08:24.599 --> 00:08:28.439 Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings. One of the Hobbits speaks of Gandalf, and this is what he says, 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:37.600 in the wizard's face, the Hobbits saw at first only lines of care and sorrow. Though, as he looked 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:45.519 more intently, he perceived that under all there was a great joy, a fountain of mirth, enough to set 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:54.320 a kingdom laughing, were it to gush forth. Mirth, or gladness, the term that's used here, it means 00:08:54.320 --> 00:09:00.960 this that no matter what is happening outside the gates of the city, no matter what is happening in 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:10.400 the hills, in the circumstances of your life, in a broken fallen world, mirth is the longing and the 00:09:10.400 --> 00:09:20.480 relief when you find it of the rest found in the hope for a true home. It's the ultimate, oh, right, 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:30.440 you know the feeling. It's the ultimate rest. Dorothy, she was right whenever she said there's no 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:41.680 place like home, but that's not true if your home is broken. But even in the best, most safe and 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:49.680 secure homes in this world, there really is no place like the home, the true city of God. It's 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:58.199 what you were made for. There is no place that can ever be like it, except it. And so the first 00:09:58.199 --> 00:10:05.279 point is simply to say this, you, every single human being, no matter what you believe, the Bible 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:11.479 teaches you were made for the city of God, the dwelling place of God, and nothing less will ever 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:21.120 be satisfactory or absolute home for you. Now secondly, the nature of the city of God. You 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:25.800 were made for it, but the question remains, what is it? We haven't really said what it actually is, 00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:32.720 what is the city of God? And we know at least at absolute maximum that it is the dwelling place 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:38.320 of God himself, the home of Yahweh, the dwelling place of God. But wait, there's more in this 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:44.440 passage even. It's not just that, it is that, that's most fundamental, but it is more than that. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:51.720 And look at how the psalmist also talks about the city itself, not only the dwelling place of 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:58.760 God, but the actual city that God dwells in, Jerusalem. I mean, you can imagine if you look 00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:07.240 at the end of verse two, O Jerusalem, and then verse three, Jerusalem. This is a love point to 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:14.360 the city of Jerusalem. It's an ode in every sense of the word. It's expressing the deep love that 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:22.480 the pilgrim has in coming to the city, to the city of God, Jerusalem. And this is what, just look 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.200 at what he says about it. Verse three, the first thing, you are built and bound firmly together. 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:35.639 In other words, this is concrete, this is physical. The city of God is a place. It is not ethereal, 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:41.559 it is not up in the sky by and by. And this is both the Old Testament teaching and the New Testament, 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:47.199 that the city of God is a physical place. It is built up as a city and it is bound together. Its 00:11:47.199 --> 00:11:52.799 architecture is beautiful, it's unified, it's not fragmented, it is a city. This is what the Old 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:59.240 and New Testament teaches. Verse four, verse four says this, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:06.240 the Lord, as was decreed for Israel. In other words, the city of God is the meeting place of the entire 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:15.680 family. All the tribes dispersed come together three times a year. The one people, and you can 00:12:15.680 --> 00:12:22.279 imagine, you know, if you grew up, if you grew up making this trip three times a year, you would come 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:29.519 into the city every season and you would see, you would see your cousins and you would see the guy 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:34.360 you grew up with that moved away when you were five and you would see all the people and it was 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:39.360 ultimate home. It was the city of your companions, of your friendships, of your family, of all your 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:46.639 deepest longings were met there. And then verse five, it is the city where the thrones for judgment 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:53.360 were set, the thrones of the house of David. And that means that the city of God is the place where 00:12:53.360 --> 00:13:01.279 the throne of David sits. It is the place where the throne of David enacts justice and peace. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:08.919 That is, that is the, here's the review, it's where God lives, it's concrete, it's physical, 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:14.759 it's built, it's bound, it's beautiful. It's the place of the unity of the family, one people where 00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:21.799 the throne of David brings justice and peace. That's the city of God. And just imagine it, 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:29.399 this is homecoming, this is where the ultimate loves all converge. The love of home, the love of 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:36.799 friendship, the love of family, the love of festival, they all together collide in the city of God 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:48.839 with the love of God, all together at one, this is ultimate home. But we know that this city that 00:13:48.839 --> 00:13:56.279 the psalmist is talking about is not the city of God at the very same time. It's a shadow, 00:13:56.279 --> 00:14:06.599 it's a shadow, it's a shadow of the real. And there are Christian traditions and various theological 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:12.080 schools that have thought that Jerusalem herself is the city of God. But that's not what the 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.600 psalmist is even saying, even the psalmist is saying that this is a shadow. And how do we see 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:21.560 that? Well, because of verse six and eight. And this is what, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And 00:14:21.560 --> 00:14:28.600 then what does he mean? May they be secure who love you. You see that the prayer is for her 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:37.040 citadels and for her walls and for her security, meaning that she can be destroyed. The reason the 00:14:37.040 --> 00:14:42.080 psalmist is saying pray for her peace is because she has enemies on the lurk. She has been destroyed 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:48.879 in the past and Jerusalem will be destroyed after this psalm was written. This city that the psalmist 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:53.160 is talking about here wasn't actually secure. It wasn't actually the security that is the city of 00:14:53.159 --> 00:15:01.039 God. The danger of the hills still dwelt around it. But even more, the prophecies, the city of 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:06.719 God and the prophecies both before the psalm and after the psalm, just let me list them for you. 00:15:06.719 --> 00:15:16.480 Ezekiel 36, this is about the city of God. On that day, the land laid waste will become the 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:23.480 garden of Eden. Out of destruction shall come forth the garden of Eden. And that means that the 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:30.960 city of God has to be like the garden of Eden. And in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve walked with 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:36.879 God hand in hand. They had full relationship with him. And in this city, the city of Jerusalem, 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:44.159 the psalmist is talking about, God dwells there, but he dwells behind a veiled curtain. And only 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:53.399 one man, one man has access to that space where God truly dwells in the city once per year. That's 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:57.360 not the garden of Eden. That is not walking hand in hand with the living God. The city of God is 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:02.279 the place where God dwells with you hand in hand, where you see his face. Theologians call it the 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:09.720 beatific vision. It's what you were made for. Isaiah 55, on that day, the wilderness, the day of 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:15.680 the city of God, the wilderness will rejoice and bloom. There will be streams where, even in the 00:16:15.680 --> 00:16:21.480 deserts, in other words, the true city of God is a place where there are no wall, you don't need 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:28.440 security. Even in the wilderness places, the hills, the deserts, the stream of the garden and the 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:34.279 city will flow. The city of God does not need prayers of peace and justice. It is secure. The 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:42.720 true city of God is secure. Isaiah 19, the city of God is Israel with Egypt and Assyria and Babylon. 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:52.079 And the city of God is the place where all of Israel's enemies are now her friends. You see, 00:16:52.079 --> 00:16:56.519 it's open to all the nations. Michael 4, 2, all the nations will turn to each other and they will 00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:03.639 say, together, Psalm 122, 1, let us go into the house of the Lord. Together, all the nations, 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:09.639 even those who were once enemies, will now come in from far off and say, let us all go into the 00:17:09.639 --> 00:17:15.839 house of the Lord. In other words, the city of God, we are made for a place where God dwells freely, 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:22.039 where we dwell freely hand in hand with God, a place where all the nations come together as one 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:32.440 that's physical, that dispels the hills and the wilds, the fear. And that is why every time you 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:36.840 go home, if it is truly a place of peace and love and security, a place that you actually want to be, 00:17:36.840 --> 00:17:45.559 every time you come home, there is a real sense of the feeling, the relief, the homecoming, and 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:57.240 simultaneously the fact that nostalgia always tells us a bit of a lie. Our nostalgia for home 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:06.240 always lies to us in a way. Now, you might have experienced this. I grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:13.359 right on the Mississippi River in the deep south, a small tourist town, it's a beautiful little town, 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:21.960 and I was there for 18 years, I left and was not back for seven, and I had changed a lot, 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:27.480 and I'd come back after seven years, and I went back to the house that I lived in for 18 years, 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:34.360 17 years there, and I was so excited, and it was, it's home, and this was homecoming, 00:18:34.360 --> 00:18:39.920 and I loved this place, and I grew up there, and we had a big old backyard, and I played so much, 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:47.600 and you know, you've had these experiences, and I came back, and it was great, but you know, 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:53.599 it was a lot smaller than I remembered, and you know, of course I was smaller too, but, 00:18:53.599 --> 00:19:03.559 and it wasn't as green, and you know, it needed an update, and it was great, it was home, 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:11.359 but it was not the place that I had dreamt of, and even in the best homes, in the most secure, 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:17.199 and loving places that we all have occupied in life, there is still something, there is a 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:24.480 strange familiarity in that of a home that we have not seen. Now the German philosophers in 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.200 the middle of the 20th century, existentialist philosophers, especially Martin Heidegger, 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:33.200 he describes exactly this, and I think in a really helpful way, he wasn't a Christian, 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:38.880 but he was a very sharp thinker, and he describes it with two German terms, and they're not really 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.759 translatable to English, so I'm going to give them to you, and then give the phrase that they 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:50.160 mean, the first is Gevorfenheit, and the second is Unheimlichkeit, and yes, take that home with you, 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:59.799 that's what you need to walk away with today. Gevorfenheit, it means the angst and anxiety 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:06.039 of being thrown into the world at birth, into a world that is simultaneously your home, 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:11.119 yet there's something wrong, and what Heidegger says is that the thing that's wrong, the Gevorfenheit 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:17.439 that we all experience from birth, the angst is that at the end of the track, we face losing 00:20:17.439 --> 00:20:24.839 ourselves in death. The reality of what we would call as Christians, the condition, the fall 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:30.719 condition, and it creates this angst in us, and simultaneously with that angst, that anxiety of 00:20:30.719 --> 00:20:39.239 loss, is also Unheimlichkeit, which means something like unhomeliness. In other words, 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:45.240 it's the fact that even in the places we feel at home in this world, we have a strange sensation 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:51.240 that we were meant for a home that was better, something better, something without Gevorfenheit, 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:57.559 without the angst of falling off the track in death and losing the self. You know, C.S. Lewis, 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:00.839 not many people put it better than he does when it comes to things like this, and this is what 00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:06.680 he said in his best book, Till We Have Faces, the sweetest thing in all my life has been the 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:14.320 longing to reach the mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from, my country, the 00:21:14.320 --> 00:21:20.080 place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longings, 00:21:20.080 --> 00:21:28.600 the longing for home, for indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. All my life, 00:21:28.600 --> 00:21:34.680 the God of the mountain has been wooing me. Oh, look up once at least before the end and wish me 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:47.600 joy for I am going to see my lover. This Psalmist spoke of a shadow, a shadow, a shadow of the 00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:56.480 city of God and a shadow of true gladness. But there was another pilgrim some six, 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:01.720 seven hundred years later, and he also made the trip to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, 00:22:01.720 --> 00:22:15.480 and he came to Jerusalem and instead of mirth, it says that he wept, because he knew, he knew that 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:23.319 wherever human beings dwell, well, he said it like this, would that you, Jerusalem, even you, 00:22:23.319 --> 00:22:30.519 had known on this day the things that make for true peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:34.680 You see, he's quoting Psalm 122, would you not have known what makes for real shalom, peace, 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:42.480 but even today they are hidden from your eyes. Why did he weep, the pilgrim, when he came to see 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:48.039 the city of Jerusalem? Why was he not filled with mirth when he saw this shadow, because he knew 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:59.039 the truth, that he must leave his home in the most ultimate and final way if we, if anyone of any 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:06.639 earthly city was ever going to reach true home. John Charles Wesley, he put it well in his hymn, 00:23:06.639 --> 00:23:15.319 he, the man of power, the son of man, he, he left his father's home above, so free, so infinite, 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:23.960 his grace, he emptied himself of all but love, and he bled for Adam's helpless race. What's 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:32.920 the nature of the city of God? It's Revelation 21, 1 to 6, we read it earlier, and then I saw the 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:40.240 new Jerusalem coming down out of the heavens, and the Alpha and the Omega was seated on the seat 00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:46.519 of David, the man of power, the pilgrim who entered Jerusalem and bled for Adam's helpless race. 00:23:46.519 --> 00:23:55.639 When he bled, the veil was torn in two so that we could have the Garden of Eden. So the cross 00:23:55.639 --> 00:24:00.799 says to you, sinner, come home, pilgrim, come home. Now very briefly and finally, I just want to say 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:08.599 two quick things. How do you seek the peace of the city of God, which is the new Jerusalem? Let me 00:24:08.599 --> 00:24:15.759 just say two things quickly. First, you have to recognize, to seek the peace as, pray for the 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:22.039 peace of Jerusalem, Psalm 6, the Shalom, you first have to realize that the city of God is not yet. 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:32.839 You have to know that the city of God is not yet. What I simply want to say is we as Christians have 00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:41.599 to grapple with the objective fact of the city of God, its concrete physicality, its coming down 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:47.719 nests in the future on the horizon of our existence. When Christ returns, we have to grapple with that 00:24:47.719 --> 00:24:55.519 objective fact and make it real subjectively in our hearts. And that is incredibly difficult to do. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:25:02.199 It is incredibly difficult to have a consciousness for the fact of the city of God in your future. 00:25:02.199 --> 00:25:10.079 I mean, the Bible calls it faith and it's hard. It's really difficult. Again, C.S. Lewis, 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:15.240 he tried to prove the fact of the city of God apart from the Bible. We can prove it from the Bible, 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:21.399 but he also did it by reason. And this is what he said, creatures are not born with desires unless 00:25:21.399 --> 00:25:28.720 satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hungry. Well, there is such a thing as food. A 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:34.319 duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water. Humans feel sexual desires. Well, 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:39.079 there is such a thing as sex. And if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:46.199 can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If not of my earthly 00:25:46.199 --> 00:25:52.159 pleasure satisfy this desire, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. No, probably earthly 00:25:52.159 --> 00:25:57.879 pleasures were never meant to satisfy the desire, but only to arouse it to suggest the real thing. 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:10.360 The city of God is real. It is not mere ethereal. It is coming down, Rev. It's going to be here in 00:26:10.360 --> 00:26:17.400 this renewed earth. And we have to grapple with the objective fact and make it real subjectively in 00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:22.360 our hearts and minds in our hearts. Because expectation means everything for how you live 00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:28.639 into today. Expectation of what's coming means everything for how you live into the day. I was, 00:26:28.639 --> 00:26:34.359 Keller mentioned an illustration I heard recently about expectations. And he said, 00:26:34.359 --> 00:26:44.839 two men are captured and imprisoned and they're going to be thrown into the pit. Think something 00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:49.759 like the dark night rises, you know, the pit in India that he's thrown into. If you know it, 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:56.240 it's a fantastic image. Never mind if you don't. They're told that they're going to, 00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:01.400 they're going to each serve a 10 year sentence. But right before being thrown into the pit, 00:27:01.400 --> 00:27:10.279 the dungeon for a 10 year sentence, one of them is told, your family is alive and they're out 00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:17.000 there and they're waiting for you and they need you and they will wait as long as it takes for 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:24.720 your return. And the other is told, your family is dead, your wife and your children, they're gone. 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:32.160 What do you think is going to happen to the experience of the two men in the pit? What's 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:42.960 the difference? One, one will do everything he can because he has hope, because he sees the future, 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:47.279 the concrete reality out in front of that is family is alive. The other, well, the other will 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:56.519 submit to Gavorphin. They will either give up their own life or they will do nothing but seek 00:27:56.519 --> 00:28:01.440 ultimate self-satisfaction in any pleasure they can possibly find while in the present before 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:07.799 they die. Expectation means everything and if you can move the objective fact of the city of God 00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:14.159 down to a real truth that exists in your heart that you live with day to day, it will put everything 00:28:14.159 --> 00:28:21.079 else into place. What it will do, it will prevent you from making the little things, the good things 00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:28.680 that God has given us in this life into crummy versions of the city of God. You see, God gives 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:33.319 us good things but if you try to treat them like the city of God, they will become bad things in 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:41.439 your life. There is not a single house by the sea, there is not a success or a good sex, money, 00:28:41.439 --> 00:28:49.839 power, or even our earthly family. That can be the city of God for us and if you make it into it, 00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:55.879 you'll destroy it because it can't bear the weight. And so expecting the fact that the city of God 00:28:55.879 --> 00:29:01.599 will put everything else into place in your life, Lewis, our father refreshes us on the journey with 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:07.199 some pleasant ends and hotels but he will not encourage us to mistake them for the true home. 00:29:07.199 --> 00:29:14.159 Secondly and lastly and briefly, not only do you have to know that the city is not yet, 00:29:14.159 --> 00:29:20.159 you have to know that the city of God is now. You have to also know the city of God is now and 00:29:20.159 --> 00:29:26.199 when the Psalmist here says pray for the peace of Jerusalem, there's both a negative and a positive 00:29:26.199 --> 00:29:30.599 sense of shalom, the word that's being used here. The negative sense is really clear, 00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:37.679 pray for her security. In other words, she has enemies and you've got to fight for her security 00:29:37.679 --> 00:29:43.599 and we said last week, how do you seek the peace of the city of God? You have to fight the enemies 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:47.679 that are in front of you in the Christian pilgrimage now and the three enemies are this, 00:29:47.679 --> 00:29:53.599 the New Testament, the world, the flesh, and the devil and the flesh is your disordered desires, 00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:59.639 not physicality but your disordered loves, your broken sinful desires. The world is 00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:03.840 everything that's wrong outside of you, the devil is the one that wants to destroy you and all I 00:30:03.840 --> 00:30:10.759 can say because of time is that you can start not to get grace but because you've been given grace 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:16.759 with self-examination, with fighting the flesh. That is seeking the peace of the city of God, 00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:21.040 seeking the peace of your own. It's fighting the sinful desires, it's fighting the flesh and we 00:30:21.040 --> 00:30:28.440 do that in prayer, pray for the shalom of your own self. Scriptural meditation, the means of grace, 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:37.600 fellowship with companion pilgrims but positively the city of God is now in this way. The New 00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:44.160 Testament teaches that the city of God is both objectively future and not yet in the form of 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:53.600 the church. The city of God as we know it now is the church. She is the pilgrim on the way. We are 00:30:53.599 --> 00:31:00.480 the church. You can't have a city without people and the city is the people on the way to the fact 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:06.519 of the city of God and so what it means to pray for the peace of Jerusalem now for you and me is 00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:13.519 to seek the peace of the church in this life and this is how Paul puts it. Do not be infants any 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:19.519 longer tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching, by cunning 00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:26.599 craftiness of people and deceitful scheming. Instead speak the truth in love and we will grow to 00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:31.279 become in every respect a mature body of him who is the head Jesus Christ. Now this is what Paul 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:36.400 says. How do you seek the peace? How do you protect the church? How do you seek the shalom of the 00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:44.160 church? He says this, I'm just gonna summarize it. You protect her teaching, you protect what the body 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:50.820 of Christ has always believed, you protect her from the bond breaking, soul destroying, deceit, 00:31:50.820 --> 00:31:55.840 gossip and scheming of human sin within the walls of the church. You protect her from that, 00:31:55.840 --> 00:32:00.279 that's how you seek her peace and you protect her by ceaseless speak the truth in love. 00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:11.960 So pray for the peace of the wandering city of God, us the church. Let's pray for it now. Lord, 00:32:11.960 --> 00:32:21.319 we give thanks to you that you have brought us across the Red Sea, that you have given justification, 00:32:21.319 --> 00:32:31.039 yet we look forward to the wilderness wanderings ending in the true home, the city of God. So we 00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:35.759 pray for her peace, we pray for her well-being, her shalom, that you would protect us from the 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:41.640 enemies of the gospel, that you would positively help us to speak truth and love to one another. 00:32:41.640 --> 00:32:47.480 That we would love the body of Christ. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.